By The Hudsonian, Joshua Hudson
How ’bout them Eagles??
Yes, I am an Eagles fan, so allow me to gloat while I can. The Steelers are likely to quell any momentum on Sunday.
But the Eagles did the thing against the Bears on Monday night. Carson Wentz, for all the criticism the team took in starting him after playing one half of preseason football, now has 71 pass attempts without an interception to begin his career. That might sound better if not for Dak Prescott and his NFL record 75 pass attempts without an INT to begin his own career. I’m quite certain those two will square off at some point this season.
But on to the game, yes?
Eagles at Bears
As mentioned above, Wentz looked good. Head Coach Doug Pederson is keeping the game plan simple. Nothing too flashy with 190 yards on 34 attempts with one touchdown, but if you watched the game, you saw WR Jordan Matthews drop a dime from Wentz which would have been a second TD and WR Nelson Agholor later in the game drop another one, albeit a contested throw that hit him in the hands. Wentz’s numbers look better if his wide receivers would get past the drops that have plagued them for almost two plus seasons. Matthews led the WR corps for the night with 6 catches and Agholor had 4, but the surprise was #3 tight end Trey Burton, filling in for the injured Zach Ertz, who had 5 for 49 and a touchdown. Three deep at TE? Pederson and the Eagles offense could provide some headaches for defenses, and for fantasy owners alike in the coming weeks. You know, if the pass-catchers can catch the football.
The Eagles running game as a whole was serviceable, but they are using all four of their backs often – Darren Sproles led the team with 12 carries, Ryan Mathews had 9 and 2 touchdowns, and Kenjon Barner and Wendall Smallwood each had 2. Maybe it helps keep them fresh, but from a fantasy perspective, it makes it difficult to put Mathews into your RB2 or FLEX spot with any kind of confidence.
How about that Eagles defense though? They gave up only 14 points to the Bears – 6 coming on an Eddie Royal punt return for a touchdown – and forced 3 turnovers and 3 sacks. They knocked QB Jay Cutler out of the game and stymied the Bears running game. The game started to get so out of hand that HC John Fox essentially benched Jeremy Langford, who at least got his fantasy owners a 1-yard touchdown run first. At least for Langford’s sake though, he did lead the team with 11 carries, so we may take solace in that.
Alshon Jeffrey continues to do Alshon Jeffrey things. He beat Eagles rookie Jalen Mills with a beautiful double move that turned into a 49-yard reception, and finished the night with 5 catches for 96 yards. But with the game as lopsided as it was, his garbage time numbers should have been higher. At least that’s how fantasy owners feel. Kevin White either isn’t yet comfortable coming off his season-long injury from a year ago, or just isn’t in sync with Cutler. He seems to be riding third in the passing game behind Jeffrey and Royal, who finished with 4 catches for 52 yards and the punt return TD. If you own Kevin White, I’d be benching him until further notice.
Scoring Leaders
D/ST Eagles – 17
RB Ryan Mathews – 16.5
TE Trey Burton – 15.9
WR Eddie Royal – 15.2
QB Carson Wentz – 14.6
WR Alshon Jeffrey – 14.6
WR Jordan Matthews – 13.1
WR Kevin White – 8.5
RB Jeremy Langford – 8.4
WR Nelson Agholor – 8.2
RB Darren Sproles – 6.8
QB Jay Cutler – 2.3